One divination a day, a trainee celestial master

Inside the side hall, the white steam rising from the teacup gradually dissipated.

Li Xuanqing held his teacup, looking at the tea leaves floating on the water, his voice low and heavy, carrying an unyielding weight.

"Lin Wanwan's parents divorced when she was young. After they each started their own families, neither of them wanted to take a child with them, so they left her in the countryside to be raised by her elderly grandmother."

Li Xuanqing calmly recounted the biography in the county bureau's file: "An old woman and a young girl, their family was so poor they didn't even have a few acres of land. To support her granddaughter, the old woman had no choice but to cultivate abandoned land from neighbors and grow some fruits and vegetables to make a living."

"The wasteland in the mountains was full of rocks and overgrown with weeds. The old woman dug with her hoe, her hands blistered and calloused. But..."

Li Xuanqing shook his head, a trace of helpless pity flashing in his eyes: "Every time the old lady reclaims the wasteland, the soil becomes fertile, and the vegetables she plants are almost ready for harvest, those neighbors who originally didn't want the land will come looking for it out of envy and forcibly demand it back."

"After all, legally speaking, that was indeed someone else's land. The old lady knew she was in the wrong, and she never argued or threw a tantrum. She just silently packed up her hoe, took Xiao Wanwan's hand, and went to a more distant hilltop to cultivate another piece of wasteland."

Jiang Shou sat in the main seat, holding a teacup, silent. He could picture the scene: an old man with a hunched back, in this world where people seek profit and avoid harm, using extremely clumsy and patient methods to carve out a way for his granddaughter to survive.

"Lin Wanwan is very promising."

Li Xuanqing continued, "She understood the hardships of the elderly from a young age. She worked part-time while studying. Later, with the help of the national poverty scholarship, she finally got into university and graduated smoothly."

"It was at this time that her parents, who had disappeared for more than ten years and had never fulfilled their parental obligations for a single day, came knocking on her door like flies that smelled fish, seeking to reunite with her."

Li Xuanqing sneered: "The two of them are all crying and saying they had their reasons back then and now want to make up for the lack of paternal and maternal love she received. In reality, they just want to reap the benefits now that their daughter has graduated from university and can earn money, and incidentally get her to help support their own families."

"But Lin Wanwan isn't like her grandmother, who only knew how to endure and yield. She's a wasteland overgrown with thorns!!"

"She was not moved by those hypocritical words of family affection. Instead, she forcefully picked up a broom and drove her heartless parents out of their home. In front of the whole village, she wrote a document severing all ties and vowing never to see them again in this life."

"After graduation, she left the village with her elderly grandmother who was almost blind and came to Qiyun County. She passed the civil service exam and became a junior high school Chinese teacher at the county's No. 3 Middle School."

Li Xuanqing put down his teacup and sighed deeply: "She rented a small house in the east of the city with her teaching salary. She thought that her hardships were finally over and that she could finally let her grandmother enjoy her old age in peace."

"Who would have thought..."

Li Xuanqing closed his eyes, unable to bear to continue.

A girl, struggling desperately in the mud, finally managed to climb ashore, ready to embrace the sunshine. But on her way home from her night shift, she was abducted like livestock by a black-gloved man sent by Zhao Jianguo. She then suffered inhuman humiliation and torture in that dark, sunless basement, and finally, dressed in a garish red wedding gown, died a gruesome death on the altar of that sorcerer.

Now, only a nearly blind, lonely old woman remains in this world, still anxiously waiting for her granddaughter to come home from get off work.

A deathly silence fell over the side hall.

Jiang Shou and Li Xuanqing remained silent, only letting out a heavy sigh in their hearts. Misfortune always finds its weakest point, and the world is sometimes just too messed up.

"Bang!"

A loud bang shattered the deathly silence of the side hall.

Zhang Lingqiu, who had been sitting quietly listening, suddenly slammed his hand on the coffee table beside him, causing the tea in his cup to spill out.

The handsome, eerily beautiful young Taoist priest now had an uncontrollable rage on his fair face.

His eyes widened, and he growled through gritted teeth, "These beasts!"

Zhang Lingqiu's chest heaved violently: "That evil Taoist deserved to die! But what about Zhao Jianguo?! As a local official, for his own selfish desires and the sake of his family's feng shui, he actually committed such a heinous crime! Such a villain, if he isn't torn to pieces and his soul is scattered, it's simply impossible to atone for his sins! The death of one of his sons is too lenient for him!"

Seeing his usually aloof junior apprentice suddenly erupt in anger, Li Xuanqing quickly reached out and pressed down on his shoulder.

"Lingqiu, be quiet." Li Xuanqing's tone was stern yet reassuring. "Zhao Jianguo has already been brought to justice, and the laws of the mortal realm will give him a fair judgment. We cultivators must not let hatred blind our hearts to the Dao."

Zhang Lingqiu clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force. He took several deep breaths to suppress the anger in his heart, but his eyes remained frighteningly cold.

Looking at the handsome young Taoist priest, bursting with a sense of justice and trembling with anger, Jiang Shou thought to himself, "Although this kid looks effeminate and has a bit of childish arrogance, his righteous indignation doesn't seem fake. It seems that the upbringing of the prestigious sects of Longhu Mountain is not without merit."

"Master Jiang."

After calming his nephew down, Li Xuanqing turned to Jiang Shou, his expression turning serious again: "Lin Wanwan suffered greatly in her life and then met with this misfortune after death. It's only natural that she has transformed into a vengeful ghost in red, filled with boundless resentment."

"However, this evil aura emanating from the red-clad figure will likely be extremely difficult to dispel."

Li Xuanqing sighed: "Unless absolutely necessary, we disciples of the Zhengyi Sect do not wish to use drastic measures to directly suppress and kill her, destroying her soul and spirit. After all, she is a pitiful victim, and it would be against the will of Heaven not even to give her a chance for reincarnation."

"But if we let her roam freely outside, that murderous aura in red will eventually affect her mind, turning her into a bloodthirsty monster. Once she harms innocent lives, she will be burdened with karmic debt, and in that case, she will only be reduced to ashes."

Jiang Shou nodded; this was precisely why he had wanted to use the [Resentment-Breaking Talisman] earlier.

"Master Li, when you tracked her to Cuiwei Mountain last night, didn't you find her hiding place?" Jiang Shou asked.

Li Xuanqing shook his head and took out a bronze compass from his wide sleeve.

This compass is far superior in design to Jiang Shou's broken wooden compass, with its surface covered with dense and intricate patterns.

"The magnetic field of Cuiwei Mountain is extremely strange." Li Xuanqing pointed to the magnetic needle on the compass that was spinning wildly and erratically. "As soon as my Yin-finding compass entered the mountain, it seemed to be interfered with by some kind of powerful magnetic field and completely lost its function. We simply cannot track down the exact location of the wedding dress ghost."

Li Xuanqing put away the compass: "However, the red-clothed vengeful ghost is newly formed, and the yang energy is extremely strong during the day. She certainly wouldn't dare to wander around. She must have found an extremely yin cave or hidden deep in a dense forest."

"Once the sun sets tonight and the yin energy rises, she is very likely to reappear. Tonight, I will lead my nephew into the mountains to continue searching for this red-clothed ghost."